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Who Are Our Reviewers?


South Lyon Trekkers

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It's not like I want to start stalking my local reviewer. In fact, our local reviewers are very accessible. It would be neat, interesting, and sometimes helpful if there was a list of the reviewers. A map with areas covered would be even better. If this already exists, please tell me where.

If I remember correctly, the primary reason (or one of the primay reasons) that Groundspeak does not produce such lists/maps is because the reviewing responsibilities fluctuate based on need, queue lengths, and vacation schedules. It would probably just create confusion, and would probably be a difficult list to maintain.

 

But I could be wrong. The other reason that I've heard is that because of the well known, extremely intense competition between the reviewers (due to their contractually-specified monthly "cache rejection quotas") they just hate seeing their names on the same list as any of their rivals.

Edited by cache_test_dummies
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It's not like I want to start stalking my local reviewer. In fact, our local reviewers are very accessible. It would be neat, interesting, and sometimes helpful if there was a list of the reviewers. A map with areas covered would be even better. If this already exists, please tell me where.

Fly46 attempted such a list. This site or at least a good part of those who represent it made it an uphill battle.

 

A picture was paited of a landscape that shifts so fast and so often that such a list would be an unwated effort in futility. The hostility caught me by suprise and I had to wonder if things were that bad how the heck they managed to approve caches.

 

Since then I do believe I've outlasted 3 reviewers for my area and Fly46 has quit being active as well.

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Just for the record Fly46 is still an active cacher, although she has become less of a forum poster.

 

I have been lucky enough to know several of the reviewers personally and as such I understand and respect their desire for a least a small amount of anonymity. I don't think most players realize just how much flak some reviewers have to endure and what a large job it is. We sometimes look at them as the people who deny caches, but far from that they are truly the representatives of both the players and of Groundspeak. It is kind of like being in congress (not in the negative way). The volunteer reviewers are chosen to represent Groundspeak and to help administer it's decisions, but at the same time the reviewers also function as the players representative to Groundspeak. I know that I have had a couple of "outside the box" placements in the past that were not addressed well under the guidelines at the time. My local reviewer presented my case "up on the hill" as a representative of the local community. It is a big job, with a lot of responsibility and quite a few headaches, and I fully support their desire to not have a comprehensive list of "people to annoy" out there for the few bad apples who blame the reviewers for following policy.

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Until there's some sort of functionality like a wiki which allows for easy updates, experience teaches that it's quite a challenge to keep an up to date list or map showing the reviewers and the territories covered. I've been a reviewer for almost five years and my defined review territory has changed ten times. I've also taken one extended leave of absence from reviewer duties, like a sabbatical. In the near future, I may need to take another break for medical reasons, while I recover from stick removal surgery. That is a lot of updating, and I am just one of dozens of reviewers. The landscape indeed shifts regularly. Look, for example, at the current threads offering well-deserved congratulations to Max Cacher on the occasion of his retirement. That may shift the boundaries of the territories covered by others, or may trigger the addition of one or more new volunteers, or both. That's just this week.

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Yes, lots of reviewer shifting. Case in point: while I'm already "out: and can hardly complain about being outed, the picture of me posted in this thread is SO unflattering, bad hair day, worst profile, tongue hanging, that I may take a bit of a sabbatical myself. Just a quick Bahamas trip to recover. While I'm away, Groundspeak may try out the new V.2 G.A.R.S. on the Florida queue, or if it's not deemed ready, someone else may be assigned.

(Keystone, if you get that duty, I'd suggest just leaving the stick, it'll put you in the frame of mind that the SoFLo cachers are accustomed to. )

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A picture was paited of a landscape that shifts so fast and so often that such a list would be an unwated effort in futility.

 

Seems to work for caches. Also, if it's such a problem to keep up with who's where, how do they know whom to send cac he submissions. Someone, or a computer, most likey has this info at all times.

 

It's probably more of a question of if it's worth the time to create code to display it.

 

All I know is that my reviewer is in NV...and I'm not.

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A picture was paited of a landscape that shifts so fast and so often that such a list would be an unwated effort in futility.

 

Seems to work for caches. Also, if it's such a problem to keep up with who's where, how do they know whom to send cac he submissions. Someone, or a computer, most likey has this info at all times.

 

It's probably more of a question of if it's worth the time to create code to display it.

 

All I know is that my reviewer is in NV...and I'm not.

New caches aren't "sent" to anyone. They are in a list, called the review queue, and we go and click on them from there to look at. If I am covering for someone who's on vacation for a week, I just go to their caches in the queue after I'm done looking at mine. I don't need to tell anybody.

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If I am covering for someone who's on vacation for a week, I just go to their caches in the queue after I'm done looking at mine.

 

How does the submission "know" which queue to go to? That's my point. It is assigned to someone.

Therefore a reviewers' name (and queue) has to be associated with coordinates so the submissions can be routed to the correct person. Seems that these data could be displayed somehow.

 

I guess in instances where reviewers are "covering" for someone, obviously, the data would be incorrect.

 

For me, it would be interesting to see how the U.S. is sliced up by reviewers. Just wondering what the pushback is all about.

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How does the submission "know" which queue to go to?

 

The cache submission form has a pull-down box with states and countries. The cacher selects one of those, which generates a piece of code for the queue URL. There's a distinct Florida queue URL, and a distinct Belgium queue URL.

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Our local review is an evil evil man. He just won't approve anything I sent to him. He's so mean that he asks if I got permission to place the cache. Then when it comes to publishing them. He won't just wait and do it when I'm ready to go caching. No, he waits till I'm at work and then publishes them.

 

Around these parts we have a great reviewer and he has a blog so we can see what he's up to from time to time. He does a great job for us. It's kind of neat to see the pictures he posts on his blog about his adventures caching and his vacations. He goes to some neat places. I've met him in person at a CITO event but he probably doesn't remember me.

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The cacher selects one of those, which generates a piece of code for the queue URL.

 

It was actually a rhetorical question.

 

But my point is, a list can be generated. The data are there. Now, whether it should be is another question all together.

Edited by PhxChem
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The cacher selects one of those, which generates a piece of code for the queue URL.

 

It was actually a rhetorical question.

 

But my point is, a list can be generated. The data are there. Now, whether it should be is another question all together.

You are mistaken. There is no existing dataset that records the boundaries of each reviewer's territory. Please trust the truth of the replies being given to you by the reviewers, who have actually seen how the review function operates. Thanks.

 

Oh, and if someone can program something that serves up just the unreviewed caches which are outside the boundaries drawn from the the Ohio state border along (1) the W082° longitude line and the N41° latitude line, and (2) the W083.5° longitude line and the N40° latitude line, and from the Pennsylvania border along the W078° longitude line and N41° latitude line, well then I'd be greatly appreciative. Until a few months from now when the borders will likely change again.

Edited by Keystone
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OK, after a great deal of discussion, I've been given clearance to post the real map. Many people in the know have known for years that there are actually just two reviewers -- ~erik~ and me. I hope the posting of this map will help you in some way. As we update the map, you can find the updates posted on this web site:

 

http://www.imspartacus.com/

 

Here is the map:

 

reviewermap.jpg

 

Thanks, and have a nice day. <_<

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